KIEV, Ukraine — Secretary of State Madeleine Albright welcomed Russian approval of a key nuclear weapons reduction treaty but indicated Washington was not likely to heed Moscow's call for abandoning its missile-defense plans.
"We've waited a long time, and the ratification is an important step in what I think is the central activity of our time — trying to deal with the remnants of the Cold War," Albright said Friday during a visit to Kiev.
When Russia's Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov visits Washington next month, "we will be able to talk further on how to intensify those arms control discussions," she said.
The lower house of Russia's parliament, the State Duma, approved the START II treaty Friday to halve U.S. and Russian nuclear weapon arsenals to 3,000-3,500 warheads each.
But President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would pull out of arms agreements if the United States breaches the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and goes ahead with its missile-defense system.
Washington wants to amend the ABM treaty to build a limited missile-defense system against possible attacks from "rogue states" such as North Korea and says the program does not threaten Russia. Moscow says the plan would only trigger a new arms race.
"We have made very clear the importance of the ABM treaty. That is something we believe (in)," Albright told reporters. "When I was in Russia, I spoke about the importance of the ABM treaty with — at that stage — acting President Putin."
"Our discussions with the Russians have been not about withdrawing but about adjusting the treaty — which has been done before — in order to accommodate the possibility, because there has been no decision made on deployment" of the missile defense system, she said.
Albright arrived in Ukraine at midday Friday and held a series of closed-door talks with President Leonid Kuchma, Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko and Foreign Minister Borys Tarasiuk.
She urged Kuchma to set a definite date for the closure of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and promised more American aid if the country deepens economic reforms.
Albright said she was "heartened" when Kuchma reaffirmed his pledge to close down Chernobyl, site of the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986.
Kiev has repeatedly made the plant's closure conditional on receiving foreign aid to complete two new nuclear reactors meant to compensate for Chernobyl's lost power.
She also conferred with a group of U.S. businessmen and honored the victims of Soviet terror, laying a wreath at a cross-shaped monument to an estimated 5 to 8 million Ukrainians killed in the 1932-33 famine enforced by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
Albright will travel on Saturday to Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan on her first visit to the region in more than three years in office. Albright was expected to focus on alleged persecution of opposition activists in Kazakstan and Kyrgyzstan.